


If I Had One Minute Back

by CastielFollowMe



Category: K-pop, SHINee
Genre: AU, Abuse, Angst, Brotherly Love, Family, OT5, Student teacher friendship, age reverse, baby!Jinki, frienship, student, teacher
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-15
Updated: 2014-09-15
Packaged: 2018-02-17 11:30:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2308061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CastielFollowMe/pseuds/CastielFollowMe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SHINee!AU where Jinki is a new kindergartener with some secrets that keep him from gaining friends. Though it would seem fate has decided to give Jinki a chance to escape his secrets in the form of four teachers. Taemin, Minho, Jonghyun and Key expect nothing out of the ordinary for the upcoming school year. That is, until they meet little Jinki. The boy who wins over hearts with a smile and cries alone. Now they'll stop at nothing to figure out the secrets woven within Jinki.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If I Had One Minute Back

Call me, my name  
Today is exactly your day  
I’ll do anything for you  
I want to give you a small gift  
That only I can give to you

When someone mentions a rough year in school, as humans, we automatically assume this person is talking about high school or even possibly middle school. We connect the words rough – in a sense that the year was tough or hard – and school, to think of common challenging years. Such as the senior year of high school, with it being the final year and exams coming up constantly. Or there’s middle school, where kids transition from one main class a day, up to about eight or so classes a day. Rough years, filled with stress or pressures. When someone mentions a rough year, typically people don’t relate to kindergarten.  
Typically.  
However, Lee Jinki wasn’t your typical kindergartener either.  
Lee Jinki wasn’t your typical anything really. He was strange, quiet, clumsy and cute. But Jinki was also a secret keeper. And he was good at it too. Jinki held more secrets than most adults would hear in their life. Dark secrets that were locked away firmly in his mind, under reinforced steel chains and locks.  
Without a key to open them, Jinki could tell no one these secrets. Not one soul.  
Although, life never goes as planned now does it? Sometimes we are graced with the unexpected, and life can be better…or life can be worse.  
Lee Jinki was about to face the unexpected; about to turn his young life around all thanks to the help of four young teachers. Who would stop at nothing to save Lee Jinki.  
X.X.X.X  
“What if I forget their names? Or what if they don’t like me? Or – oh! What if something catches on fire?!”  
The only response was this as followed: one eye roll, one raised eyebrow and one snicker. The owner of the desperate and terrified voice groaned at his companions responses to his serious panic mode.  
“Pipe down Taeminnie, you’ll be fine.” The tallest of the four friends and second youngest in the group, replied softly. Choi Minho was a man of few words in public (unless of course, he was teaching…you kind of had to talk a lot then), but when he was alone with his friends, Minho was more social than even the diva of their group.  
“Minho is right!” Jonghyun, the oldest but shortest (much to Minho’s amusement) member of their group chimed in. Jonghyun grinned widely, eyes crinkling and leaned over to ruffle Taemin’s long hair. The youngest male pouted before swatting at Jonghyun.  
“Leave my hair alone. I actually tried with it today.” Lee Taemin grumbled, unable to seriously glare at his hyung. With a pout set like a puppy, and all its excited energy, it was hard to be mad at Jonghyun. Ever.  
Besides, Jonghyun had always been Taemin’s rock through the years. He always expressed how proud he was of Taemin and supported the young man.  
“I can see that.” Jonghyun nodded to himself while rubbing his chin. “You didn’t throw your hair up into a messy, pathetic attempt at a ponytail.” Minho laughed loudly with shaking shoulders at Jonghyun’s comment.  
“Hey! Key says it looks casual. Not messy.” Argued Taemin. Said person turned to glance at Taemin uninterestedly. Kim Kibum was the second oldest in their group of friends, and he was not only the one with the snippiest comebacks, but he was also the one gifted with absolutely artistic fashion sense. Known as “Key” to most, Kibum was blunt, honest but caring.  
“No, it’s messy. It was always messy. But you have an unnatural talent to make messy look good.” Key replied with a shrug of his shoulders. Taemin protested loudly before shoving Key for not taking his side. Key yelped, slapping at Taemin’s arm. “Yah! Don’t hit me. You know it’s true!”  
Huffing, Taemin decided to let the conversation drop. He gripped the worn and thin strap of his messenger back tighter when the elementary building came into view.  
SM Academy. Otherwise known as the school where Jonghyun, Key, Minho and now Taemin, worked at.  
“I don’t see why you’re so nervous Taemin.” Minho replied as he gently placed a comforting hand on Taemin’s shoulder. Taemin managed a weak smile, as a way of saying thanks for Minho’s gesture. “The rest of us aren’t.”  
“Well you all have been teaching!” Taemin cried. Jonghyun snorted.  
“I’ve been teaching on my own for two years. That’s not very long. I didn’t even get to do what you’re doing now when I was twenty-one. I had to do it when I was twenty-two. Three years ago. Not very long ago kid.” Jonghyun said softly. His eyes narrowed on Taemin on seeing how nervous the young man was.  
“Besides, my little Taeminnie is a man now!” Key replied in a high, sing-song voice and he pinched the cheeks of Taemin. Taemin groaned in attempts to escape the “Umma” Key.  
“This is my first year teaching on my own.” Minho spoke up.” “So you’re not alone in the “first years” Taemin. Besides, you’re a student teacher. You’ll always have a real teacher in charge to help you. So if the classroom does catch on fire, it’s really their problem.” The taller man smiled with a chuckle, when Taemin laughed into his hands. The tension was slowly draining from Taemin. He almost looked confident.  
“Besides,” Jonghyun announced and slung one arm over Key’s shoulder and the other over Taemin’s. Key pulled Minho in their group with a smile. “You have the three of us. There’s nothing to worry about.”  
Finally Taemin’s smile was bright and wide, without a trace of nerves of fear. He took a deep breath. He could do this, right  
“Now, knock ‘em dead Tae-Tae!”  
“Jonghyun!”  
Yeah. He could do this for sure.  
X.X.X.X  
Taemin’s supervising teacher seemed….awesome. As in totally cool, laid-back, fun, we-could-be-good-friends, awesome. He was older than Taemin of course but he was young enough still that Taemin felt he could relate to the guy. He was nice, pleasant and someone who should definitely should be teaching kids, let alone kindergarteners.  
His name was Kim Jongin, or Kai as most friends called him.  
“No need to call me sir, Mr. Kim, or anything like that.” Kai laughed after introductions. His smile was warm and inviting, further helping to ease Taemin’s nerves.  
“Uh, cool.” Yeah. Cool, “Taemin replied, rubbing his neck. “Same here. Uh, just call me Taemin.” Kai nodded in agreement before settling in for the day.  
“These first few days, you’ll mostly just be watching really. Not only do you have to get use to this class, room and me, the kids do also.” Kai explained. “But I want you to get as much hands on experience as possible. So please, participate in any activities, discussions or whatever. You are the second teacher here. Whenever you want to say something, just speak up like a teacher would. Eventually, I’m even going to have you run lessons yourself.”  
Taemin could feel the blood draining from his face and the nerves had arrived again in full force. Settling right in his lungs.  
Kai chuckled and gave Taemin a pat on the back.” Don’t worry, I won’t set these rascals on you for a few weeks. Don’t look like I’ve just fed you to the lions.”  
“I wasn’t scared.” Taemin protested, causing Kai to scoff.  
“Right.” Suddenly, he clapped his hands with a mischievous smile. Taemin swallowed thickly. “It’s time to greet the kiddos. Get ready, teach.” Taemin would swear he felt his heart actually leap into his throat.  
Fighting?  
It only took about twenty minutes for Taemin to calm down. Well actually, he only had twenty minutes, so he pretty much forced himself to calm down. As the kids began piling into the class and settling down, Taemin took slow and deep breaths to steady his nerves.  
A majority of the kindergarteners entered the room with their parents, so the class was a mess of crying kids, kids saying goodbye to their parents, kids clinging to their parents, or crying parents. Some children seemed well adjusted to saying goodbye, for they were off to the toys as soon as they spotted them without a second glance at their parents.  
Kai was continuously introducing himself to parents and kids as they entered the classroom, pausing every now and again to introduce Taemin if a parent asked about him. Soon child after child were coming up to Taemin, asking who he was or if he wanted to play with them. Taemin easily found himself comfortable and relaxed with the children once he started to play with them. And if by the looks of it, many children would be comfortable with him too.  
Eventually, all of the parents began to pile out of the classroom, and the kids started settling themselves. Taemin decided to walk around the room and familiarize himself while Kai led the parents out of the room.  
It was by pure luck and boredom that Taemin noticed him. Taemin had to back track and blink just to make sure he was seeing a…child.  
While the parents had entered and were being led out the door into the school’s hallway, this little child was standing by the ajar back door leading outside. And he was alone. Taemin rushed to open the door all the way, to let the boy in, only causing the boy to flinch. Carefully, Taemin crouched to the boy’s height to get a good look at him.  
He was small and thin, but his face was filled with chubby cheeks and wide, chocolate eyes. His hair was long, down to his neck and with bangs swept to the left side of his face over his forehead. The clothes he wore were a bit big on him and somewhat dirty, but Taemin was surprised to see the same color skinny jeans on him as Taemin. The little boy was nervously twisting the hem of his shirt in his hands, while staring down at his – very worn – sneakers.  
Silence etched on.  
Finally Taemin cleared his throat. “Hello there. Ah, are you in Kim Jongin’s class?” Taemin asked in the softest voice that he could manage, as to not startle the boy any further. As a mental success, Taemin noticed the boy did not flinch. Instead he hesitantly looked up at Taemin, allowing Taemin to smile as widely as he could. Thankfully they boy took this as a calming effect.  
A tiny smile wormed its way onto his face; it was barely there, but still it was there. Slowly the boy nodded and Taemin chuckled.  
“Then you’ve come to the right place! Welcome to kindergarten: your first steps at becoming a well-educated, awesome person!” Taemin greeted and held out one hand. The young boy blinked owlishly, as if he’d never seen a hand before. “My name is Lee Taemin. But you can call me Taemin, Tae, Min or whatever is easiest for you. I’m the teacher assistant in Jong-in Seonsaeng-nim’s class. So I’ll be in class with you all year.”  
The little boy’s smile grew slightly at Taemin’s introduction and finally he allowed his hand to come out in order to shake Taemin’s. He bowed before Taemin. Polite.  
“I’m Lee Jinki, seonsaeng-nim.” His voice was much higher and louder than Taemin imagined. Not loud as in annoying or shrilling. But loud as in he had a lot of power hidden in his vocal cords.  
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Jinki-yah. But please call me Taemin. Seonsaeng-nim makes me feel so ooollllllddddd.” Taemin grinned wider when Jinki’s smile remained. “You can even call me Taemin hyung if you’d prefer.”  
“B-But you’re my teacher.” Jinki mumbled; his smile disappearing quickly. Taemin frowned, not liking the solemn look on the kindergartener’s face.  
“No. Really, Jongin-ssi is your teacher. I’m a “teacher assistant,” so technically you don’t have to call me anything at all.” Taemin winked before raising a finger to his lips. “But shh, I didn’t tell you that.”  
That was it.  
A teeny giggle flew out of Jinki’s mouth and the boy covered his mouth in attempts to collect himself. Taemin felt himself smiling once more.  
His chest warmed at the sight. “So what do you say? How about it, Jinki?” Taemin decided Jinki was already scared enough, and opted to not ask where his parents were. They must have just dropped him off.  
Jinki pondered seriously for a moment, tapping his chubby chin. Some stray hairs fell over his eyes and Taemin felt the urge to brush them aside.  
“Sure. Taemin-hyung.”  
Taemin would swear he had never smiled so brightly before.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoy this story and this chapter. Was it good? Is it even worth continuing or should I just scrape this story? I would love to hear your comments and thoughts or even tell me what you would like to see in this story! Thank you for taking the time to read this story and have a great day!  
> Peace out!


End file.
